Wapper-jawed

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>A subscriber has asked me about the expression 'wapper-jawed',
>of which I've found mention in OED2 and RHWUD. My references
>over here in Britain are not comprehensive enough to determine
>to what extent this expression is now current in the US, if at
>all. My subscriber's co-worker says it actually means "askew",
>which is at variance both with its construction and the sense
>given in RHWUD. ....

'Askew' matches the OED 1825 citation ('wapper') fairly well, I think.

It is very rare in my personal experience. But ...

A quick Web search turns up numerous examples, mostly in the form
'whopper-jawed' (39 apparent hits). For example:

http://www.catawbavalley.com/users/k/kquille/thingsch1w.htm

http://members.nbci.com/south_talkin/w.htm

http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/amerispeak/hillbilly.htm

http://www.poncacitynews.com/NewsArchives/0500folder/lo052100.html

http://www.slanguage.com/indianapolis.html

http://www.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/199608/1996.08.30.05.html

http://lithops.as.arizona.edu/~jill/humor.text

'Askew' seems to match the examples on the Web. Judging by the numerous Web
examples, the expression seems to be current.

An example of 'whopper-jawed' from Mark Twain --

http://www.twainquotes.com/18631212t.html

-- seems to imply a somewhat different meaning, perhaps more in line with
the RH dictionary's.

-- Doug Wilson